


A Special Place A Special Time

by SleepySpeedster



Category: Batman Beyond, The Flash (Comics)
Genre: Established Relationship, Future Fic, M/M, Older Characters, Rare Pairings, Short & Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:08:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23475196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepySpeedster/pseuds/SleepySpeedster
Summary: It's late and Thad sits in a bar waiting for someone. And for no one else would he wait forever for.
Relationships: Terry McGinnis/Thaddeus Thawne
Kudos: 12





	A Special Place A Special Time

**Author's Note:**

> Thad and Terry are around their 40s-50s for this fic.
> 
> I don't actually remember writing the first half of this fic and decided to be self indulgent and finish it because I wanted something sweet.

It’s late and the dingy bar at 2 in the morning slowed into a sleepy lull long ago, but Thad sits at the bar still with a fresh drink in his hand. For more than few hours he had waited right in that spot. It was uncharacteristic for some speedsters to sit still for so long. To go unmoving for so long without something else dragging him off, even for someone as patient as Thad, seemed unusual. He could have been anywhere in the world, or in any time period, but he had chosen this small dirty, dingy bar in Gotham. If anyone had come up to ask him as to why someone like him would choose to wait in such a place, a smirk would slide up the corner of his mouth, and such a rare light would twinkle would shine in his aged golden eyes.

“Because this place is special.” He said to himself and no one in particular.

Twenty years was what made it special. No matter how much he time-traveled, no matter how much his life was separated by disjointed moments in time he would make sure to never forget this date, this time, and how many years it had been since they first chatted within this bar.

It was a moment he would make last in his mind forever. One of the few good moments in his life, and as time passed it had become one amongst many more. However, it was this first meeting in this dingy little bar that had made his life so special.

It was only one of a handful days out of he year that the two of them could manage to scrounge together, but somehow they did it. Thad was always early with a drink in his hand, and always restless in a way that the one he waited for could only see. No matter how long it took the wait was it was always sweet in the end. He could wait for Terry forever if he had to. He had once wondered if he could stay in one spot, waiting forever? And the answer came to him easily.

He would do it for him. Only for him.

Thad swirled his drink in hand, the condensation slick on the glass, as he looked into the amber liquid.

“Hey.” A warm hand trailed up the his back and settles behind his neck, “I didn’t keep you waiting did I?” Unmistakable was Terry’s voice to Thad. Unmistakeable was the way he touched him in those moments. His hand was firm against him. It always was, and as if he was trying to keep him from evaporating into mist at a moment’s notice.

“Never.” Thad replied as he looked upon his lover as he stood up and embraced him in a long firm hug earning a wheezing and somewhat pained laugh from Terry. Bruised ribs, he thought and what else? He had noticed a cut on Terry’s cheek. It wasn’t fresh, but recent enough that it hadn’t healed completely. If he looked further he could find anything else ailing him, his hands began to trail, “I see ‘work’ is still keeping you busy.” Thad said in a voice tinged with a touch of scolding; His breath tickling Terry’s ear. Work was the eternal struggle between the two of them. Batman would always be busy taking care of Gotham.

“You’re turning this hug into a grope, Thawne. We’re in public remember?” Terry says slyly as his hands on Thad’s back dip and hold his waist. “Or would you prefer for the both of us to get charged with public indecency?”

“Only if I get to take you down with me.” He finally pulled away with a smirk on his lips.

“I see you’re still trouble.” Terry grinned that same grin that made Thad’s heart race, but this time he noticed how the lines at the corner of Terry’s eyes deepened as he did so. Another change Thad had noticed. As much as things stayed the same between them they also changed. They had both grown and aged, but it was so much more noticeable on Terry than it was himself. Speedsters didn’t age as quickly, but that was only a side effect of the Speed Force to start with regarding the clone. It made him worry at times. That within him there was a guarantee that he would outlive everyone he cared about. Even to a chronic time traveler, time was still fast and cruel to the people you love. It was faster than Thad could run, or bound. Time and death were the two that always caught everyone.

“And you’re still the same dedicated worker.” He cupped Terry’s cheek gingerly and traces the cut on his cheek with his thumb.

“It’s nothing, Thad.” Terry leans into the touch and places his hand over Thad’s encompassing it almost entirely, the dim light of the bar reflecting off his ring. It might have been nothing, but nothing didn’t cause Thad to worry, for his mind to race with what-ifs, and consider just what his life would be without Terry. He traced his thumb over the cut as he stared into Terry’s eyes. All it took from Thad was a bit of a feeling, and then there was the smallest of sparks that leapt from his thumb. He shared a touch of the Speed Force’s energy from himself to Terry, and in an instance the cut was healed.

Thad sighed. They could get into the same old argument about this. How Terry needed to be careful, how neither of them were young any longer. He couldn’t just rush out like he used to. It was reckless and stupid. And then inevitably it would turn to himself as it always did. “It might be nothing to you, but I worry, alright?” Thad had few people left that he cared about, and even fewer that cared about him in return. He cherished Terry, and what they had together.

“I know I’m not young, but—” Terry had stopped like a broken clock in that moment. He hadn’t been the only one to expect their usual argument. Being with someone so long just made you funny like that.

However Terry’s astonishment and wide grin was his own special brand of funny, “You actually admitted it.”

“Oh, for sprock’s sake.” Thad rolls his eyes and pulls away, heading toward the exit.

“Come on, Thad!” Terry calls out with a laugh and jogs after him, “Let me live a little! You rarely admit how you feel!”

“Because it _always_ works so well. Remember, the time I told you that I loved you? And I’m still regretting that one all these years later.”

“You can’t blame me for that one.” Terry laughs as he grasps Thad’s hand before he can get too far from the bar. His thumb tracing over the matching ring on his hand. “I thought you hated me.”

“I did not hate you.” It hadn’t helped that he found it difficult to open up to others, but also that their relationship had started out so casually. Thad had been confident that feelings had nothing to do with it. That it was just been the fact McGinnis didn’t judge him for being a villain mixed with built up tension from their encounters as villain and hero, and a bit of alcohol. They had run into each other too much on and off of their respective work. It had been complicated.

“How else would we have ended up like this, hm?” Thad says softly as he turns to Terry, and held his hand properly, and in turn Terry smiled and grasped his hand back. For all the words Thad couldn’t say, Terry was quick to infer and bridge the gap between them.

"Well, I am charming, so that must have had something to do with it." Even Thad couldn't help, but smirk at that retort, "Come on.” He tugs his hand and pulls him back in the direction of the bar, “It’s not every day we get to celebrate our anniversary. I want to know everything that's happened with you, and tell you everything you've missed since you left."

And so they walked side by side back into the bar they first met long ago as a simply two young men. Not a hero. Not a villain. Just themselves.


End file.
